September17

Car Stories

Window Woes
With as many horrible stories we all share about car troubles, sometimes you do get to see the silver-lining. About two weeks ago, while driving out to lunch, the driver's side window on my 2000 Volkswagon Jetta fell off its track and into the door. I couldn't believe it. Since my manufacturer's warranty went out over a year ago, things have been going in a negative direction. It's a known fact that VW has started to manufacture some of its vehicles in Mexico (paragraph five), and that there have been many complaints about cars that were made there. I don't know where my car was made, nor do I really care, I just don't want things to break on it.

So, my window was now unable to roll-up, great. I called Rick up at Northtowne Volkswagon to see how much it would cost and how soon he could get it fixed. He said that he'd squeeze my car in as soon as he could and asked how many miles I had (54k). I took the car in to drop it off and Rick informed me that a lot of Jettas are having this problem on the driver's and passenger's side doors and that VW has extended the warranty up to 70,000 miles for those windows. Long story short, he fixed both windows for free. Rick also fixed the brake light that has a recall issued (check for recalls on your vehicle) on it and I also had my thermostat light bulb fixed which cost half of the estimate Rick quoted me. I was so pleased about my entire experience that I just contacted VW corporate to tell them how happy I was.

Stupid Cutters
You know all "those people" who choose not to get into the merge lane until the very last second? How about "those people" that just merge onto the highway right in front of you without matching your speed? Or, or, or, what about "those people" who think they can skirt their way around traffic jams by exiting and then getting back on the highway? Ooooooh, yeah, "those people" really get on my nerves.

When I lived up North, driving to work took me about 15 minutes of steady driving. It was a rare case that I had to stop on the highway, that's because VML is located on Richards Road, a road that circles the entire downtown airport. This road runs parallel to Broadway/Hwy 169, so once I got to the Northern-most tip of the airport, I could exit and get to work. In many cases, I would be driving at 40mph while passing around 300 cars (yes, I counted the lane nearest to me one day, and multiplied by two). The crappy part is that while I only passed 300 cars, there are many more since VML is about a quarter-mile from the Broadway Bridge. This traffic that I was passing, is backed up all the way into downtown.

This is where "those people" come into the story. When I made my exit onto Richards Road, I usually wasn't the only one exiting. The drivers exiting with me weren't employees of VML, and I'd wager to say a majority weren't stopping on Richards Road for any business. No, these people are exiting and driving an extra two miles without traffic jam, and then getting back on the highway after passing around 500 people. That's not fair and it drives me insane. I wish cops would just sit on the access road and pull people over for doing that.

Luckily I don't have to deal with that anymore since I live downtown, but as I drive in to work, I see the faces of all these people and think how crappy that must be to be stuck in traffic. The other morning, while exiting onto Richards Road (going to work), there was an accident on the on-ramp heading South onto the Broadway Bridge. And waaaaaay down at the bottom of the road to get onto the on-ramp, there was a police car not allowing people to get on the road since they wouldn't be able to get up the ramp. I waited at the stop sign for about 10 cars doing u-turns since their plan was foiled, and all I could do was sit in delight thinking that even though they tried to get around all the people in the jam, that they were going to end up even further behind them... all because cheaters never win!!!

+ original post date: September 17, 2004 01:13 PM
+ categories: Automobile